How the World Spins
by Enigmatic Tathren
Summary: A collection of oneshots taking place after Dying Day, Dying Wish. Just what do Matt and Jeff do now? How has the past year affected everyone else? And is everything really back to normal?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I still own nothing.**

**A/N: Sorry for the bit of delay, but here's the promised collection of oneshots! They will most likely be a bit shorter than the regular chapters, but don't worry; there'll be quite a few of them.**

Jeff had been quite surprised when they weren't summoned to Vince's office that night. Or the next day. Or the day after that. In fact, it wasn't until five days after "The Revolution", as it was now being called, that Matt and Jeff were finally contacted about what had happened.

"They make us wait nearly a week and the only thing they say is that we need to see Stephanie before the show on Monday?" Matt muttered.

"Hey, at least we're finally talking to someone, and that someone isn't Vince," Jeff pointed out. "Knowing our luck we could've just been fired."

"Don't get your hopes up. We still might be."

Jeff rolled his eyes. "My brother, always the pessimist…" Truth be told, he knew that Matt was right. There was a good chance that Stephanie only wanted to yell at them before firing them, but he couldn't help but feel like everything would end up alright. After all, hadn't they already solved the mystery that had been bothering them for months? What could go wrong now?

As it turned out, a lot could. Jeff felt his optimism fading the moment they entered the arena. All conversations immediately stopped and their coworkers stared at them as they walked past. As soon as they left the room the quiet conversations started up again, but it wasn't hard to guess what they were talking about.

"This is going to be one of those things that goes down in WWE history, isn't it?" Jeff asked quietly, doing his best to ignore his fellow wrestlers.

Matt chuckled. "Probably. At least, there's a very good chance of that happening. To be honest, I have no idea what the final result is going to be."

Jeff nodded. He had figured as much and, for better or for worse, they would just have to weather out the storm as best as they could. They stopped outside Stephanie's office, neither of them really wanting to go in. "Listen, Matt, if things don't go our way in there…" Jeff began.

Matt quickly cut him off. "Jeff, whatever happens isn't your fault," he said. "Even if I lose my job, I'm just glad that you figured out who was pulling the strings and revealed that person to the world." Before Jeff could protest, he knocked on the door and walked in.

Stephanie looked up as they entered. "Sit down, both of you." After they had taken a seat in front of her desk she continued. "I'm sorry for leaving this meeting until the last minute, but the discussions about what should be done took longer than I had initially expected. After the show last week Mickie, Jericho, Miz, and Hunter all came up to talk to me. They explained their part in it, Hunter showed me his letter, and they demanded that I not fire you two."

Matt and Jeff couldn't help but grin. They had been expecting to hear that.

"I then had to talk to my father," Stephanie continued. "He tried to deny it but eventually… he admitted to everything."

Jeff couldn't help but feel sorry for her. After all, her own father had threatened to hurt her if Hunter didn't do what he wanted. She had unknowingly been a pawn in this and that must've been killing her.

"To be honest, we still aren't sure how we're going to continue this onscreen, but we do know that it's best if my father… takes some time off. Once we pointed out how he nearly ruined the entire company, he was all too ready to agree."

"What does that mean for us?" Matt asked.

"It means that both of you are still employees of the WWE," Stephanie told him. "Jeff, we checked with your doctor and he backed up what you said last week on Raw. I'll understand if, after everything that's happened, you want to walk away, though. I'm prepared to release you of your contract now, if that's what you want."

"If it's alright, I'd still like to stay on as Matt's manager," Jeff said. "I… I'm not quite ready to leave yet, even if I can't wrestle."

A brief smile flickered across Stephanie's face. "Very well," she said. "You two should go get ready for the show, then. You're up first."

XXXXX

Matt's music hit and he entered the arena to a decent, if bit subdued, crowd reaction. Not that he could blame them. After everything that had happened the week before it would've surprised him if they weren't wondering where Jeff was.

"Let me tell you, after what happened last week I figured it was only a matter of time before I heard those infamous words and had to pack my bags," Matt said once he was in the ring. "To my surprise I'm still here, not that I'm complaining! And Vince? He's off on… vacation. Indefinitely." He grinned as the crowd started to cheer.

"There is one more thing, though," he said, adopting a more serious tone. "I talked to Stephanie earlier, and Jeff won't be wrestling anymore." The crowd started booing and Matt ducked his head, acting like he was upset but really just trying to hide his grin.

Suddenly, Jeff's music hit and Matt yelled over the crowd, "But that doesn't mean that he's out of the WWE!"

"You know, you didn't have to be so cruel to these poor fans, Matt," Jeff joked as he climbed into the ring. "See, what my brother didn't tell you was that while I may not be able to wrestle this won't be the last you'll see of me. See, I talked to Stephanie McMahon earlier as well. She was all for releasing me of my contract if that's what I wanted, considering how Vince had screwed up my career eight times over. But I told her that no, I'd rather hang around for a bit."

"So now, let me introduce my new manager, my brother Jeff Hardy!" Matt said.

Suddenly, Triple H's music hit. As he was waiting at the top of the ramp, Jericho's music started playing as well, followed by Miz's and then Mickie's. Matt and Jeff watched as the four walked down to the ring together, more curious than surprised. That was another result of the past few months; there would be very few things in the WWE that could truly surprise them.

"Matt, Jeff, we didn't get to properly thank you last week," Hunter said once they were all in the ring. "See, for those of you out there who don't know, Vince threatened us so we would do his dirty work for him. Miz, Jericho, and Mickie got threatened with their careers. I got threatened with my family getting hurt." His face clouded at the thought.

_I'd hate to be Vince when Hunter finally catches up with him_, Jeff thought grimly.

"We wanted to thank you for finally figuring out who sent us the letters, as well as apologize for what we did," Miz continued.

"I know that we-" Mickie was cut off by Orton's music starting up.

"Who the hell do you think you are? Who do any of you think you are?" Orton said angrily. "Coming out here and accusing Mr. McMahon of screwing you over, getting him indefinitely removed from the WWE. What makes you think he'd bother with the likes of you?"

Luckily, Stephanie had hinted that this might happen, so Matt and Jeff knew that this was just part of the scripted show. "Well, Orton, if you have such a problem with it, let's settle this," Matt said. "You and me, one on one, tonight!" Jericho leaned over and whispered in his ear. "On second thought, how about you and your two lackeys against Triple H, Miz, Jericho, and myself? I'll even let you find a fourth opponent, if you want."

Before Orton could respond, Stephanie herself came out. "Randy, I just wanted to remind you that you are in the Triple Threat match later tonight to determine the number one contender for the WWE Championship," she said smoothly. "You'll have to decide which is more important- fighting Matt Hardy and the others in a tag match or fighting to become number one contender."

Orton scowled, but yelled, "Fine! I'll fight them!"

As Raw went to commercial and the ring started to clear, Jeff turned to Matt and said, "Well, looks like everything's back to normal. Once again we're in an actual storyline that, at some point, will have a clean ending and we'll move on in our careers."

Matt grinned. "And I wouldn't have it any other way."


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: We all know the drill by now. I own nothing.**

**A/N: Another oneshot for all my lovely reviewers! Remember, if there's any scene in particular you want to see, just let me know and I'll do my best to write it up! As long as it doesn't have Vince as the main focus point. Never again will I write mostly from his POV. Nevernevernever. I **_**hate**_** writing him, which is part of the reason that this is so short.**

Vince McMahon looked over his shoulder as he made his way carefully through the halls of the arena. Raw had finished two hours ago and though he knew that no one would be around, he couldn't shake the feeling of being watched. If he had his way he would've have even snuck into the arena in the first place, but he needed to get some of his papers from Stephanie's office and he knew that she always left everything in the arena after Raw instead of bringing it back to the hotel.

_Stupid bitch,_ he thought viciously as he glanced over his shoulder again. There was still no one there, but goddamnit he knew he wouldn't be able to relax until he was out of the arena.

Luckily Stephanie hadn't locked the room she had used as her office so Vince was able to get in without any problems. The real trouble lay in trying to find the exact papers that he needed. He seriously doubted that his daughter had any sort of organizational method and he found himself having to go through every scrap of paper in the damn room before he found what he was looking for.

He was exhausted by the time he locked the office back up and began making his way out of the arena. He was so preoccupied with the thought of returning to his hotel and finally getting some sleep that he didn't notice that someone had come up behind him until he heard a voice say, "Going somewhere, Vince?"

Vince frowned, but turned around. "What the hell are you doing here, Hunter?"

"I could ask you the same question," Hunter said, taking a step closer. "But I think I already know. You wanted to get rid of any evidence linking you to this, didn't you?"

Vince scowled, but didn't say anything. That was the reason why he was there, after all; the papers he had gotten were potentially incriminating and he had wanted to destroy them before Stephanie or one of the damn Hardys could use it against him in court. "If you'll excuse me, I have to go," he said, turning away.

Hunter grabbed his arm and spun him around. "I don't fucking think so," he snarled. "No one threatens my family and gets away with it, not even you." He punched Vince as hard as he could, sending the older man sprawling to the floor.

"Now, Hunter, I thought you weren't going to start without us?" Jericho asked as he walked over, a faint smile on his face.

"What happened to all of us getting a piece of him?" Miz added as he stepped out of the shadows. "Except Mickie, of course."

The Diva smacked him on the back of the head. "Idiot, I get a piece of him too."

Vince sat up slowly, cautiously, and watched the four of them through jokes back and forth. Maybe he could sneak away while they were distracted…

"And where do you think you're going?" Jericho asked as he stepped heavily down on Vince's back, effectively stopping the chairman's escape, before removing his foot and kicking him in the sides.

Vince groaned and tried to move away from the attack, but another foot came at him from a different side, followed by another and another. Someone, or a couple of people, started punching him as well. He groaned as a kick landed directly in his ribs and prayed that nothing had been broken yet.

"What the hell are you guys doing?"

The four people who were assaulting him moved away and Vince weakly raised his head to see who had showed up to save him. Except that the two people standing in front of him were fair from his saviors.

"I thought that would be fairly obvious," Hunter said. "After all, we did swear to get revenge on this guy." He emphasized his words with a none-too-gentle kick and Vince groaned.

"Besides, you did tell us that you didn't care what we did to him," Miz added.

Matt rolled his eyes. "Yeah, but that's not the point."

_They told them what!?_ Vince thought angrily. He opened his mouth to protest, but one look from Hunter shut him up.

"The point is that you didn't tell us what you were doing," Matt continued. "How were we supposed to get our revenge?"

"We thought you already had," Jericho told him. "Orton said…" His voice trailed off. "Of course. This is Orton we're talking about."

Jeff laughed. "It's fine. Listen, as fun as this looks, how about I leave it in your hands? You seem to have it pretty well covered."

"Wait!" Vince yelled as they started to walk away. "You can't… I mean, you aren't going to…"

Jeff whipped his head around and glared at Vince, before storming back over to where he was lying on the floor. He brushed the others aside and dragged him to his feet, before nailing a hard punch in almost the exact same spot that Hunter had.

"I don't have to do anything for you," Jeff hissed. "Be lucky that this is the _only_ punishment you'll get!" He threw Vince back down on the ground and said, "He's all yours" before walking away again.

"Jeff, you sure?" Matt asked softly after he had caught up with his brother. "This is probably the only chance you'll have to-"

"I know, Matt," Jeff said. "But I don't want to. Besides, isn't it fitting? He let others screw up my life. I'm letting others screw up his."

**A/N: Blah! –runs and hides from the horribleness- So, so, SO sorry about how this turned out!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I own none of them.**

**A/N: Woo, something different from me! First person POV this time, folks. Mickie's POV, to be exact. I just love writing about those four, especially Mickie and Miz. Anywho, hope you like!**

It wasn't that Jeff needed to be looked after, not exactly, but some of the guys in the locker room had been giving him a hard time about driving Mr. McMahon away. It had started as them quietly ignoring him, leaving or turning away when he came near. Jeff bore it all quietly, acting like he didn't even notice them. Then the snubs turned into whispers, the whispers into rumors, the rumors into face-to-face taunts, and still Jeff said nothing.

Matt confronted his brother about it early on, but Jeff just insisted that he'd take care of it, that it was his problem to work out and no one else's, but he didn't do anything about it. Matt wanted to get involved, but despite what they both claim there are still moments when they half expect the other to walk away again. They can't see it, but everyone else around them can. This was one of those moments.

We, the four of us that is, like to think that we're close to the Hardys. Or are on decent terms with them, anyway. I suppose it's because we've had our careers sabotaged by Vince. None of the others know what that's like, and in Jeff's case some resent us for it, so we've banded together. Miz wants it to go onscreen, but none of us are overly thrilled about publically continuing the Vince-disaster longer than necessary.

Anyway we, including Matt and Jeff, look out for each other. Or rather, we look out for Matt and Jeff, as well as each other. After everything they've been through the four of us have adoptive a rather protective attitude towards them. It's understandable, considering how Matt was hurt deeply by Vince's lies and Jeff lost his entire wrestling career. They're great guys and we don't want anything else to happen to them.

So when word started to get around that Jeff wasn't doing anything about those that seemed to have it out for him, we stepped in to take matters into our own hands. Of course, there was the mandatory debate about it first…

"_Are you guys sure that we should be doing this?" I asked. "I mean, he didn't want his own brother to interfere. What makes you think that he'll appreciated us stepping in?"_

_Jericho rolled his eyes. "Please. The only reason he didn't want Matt getting involved was because he probably thought that it would irritate him, and we all know that even if things are fine they still tread lightly at times."_

"_Maybe Mickie is right," Miz said slowly. "What if he takes this the wrong way?"_

"_Then he'll yell at us and calm down in a couple of days," Hunter said. "Now, are you guys in or not?"_

_Jericho nodded, and after a slight hesitation, Miz and I did as well._

…but in the end it was decided that we would follow through with this. The actual intimidation part was actually rather fun, even if I was against it at first. For all their talk and bullying, all it took was a couple of harsh threats and a few punches for the guys to promise to cut it out.

We walked back to the hotel, laughing and trading jokes like we were old friends, instead of people who, only a few weeks ago, had exchanged only a couple of words a night.

"Do you guys think that maybe we shouldn't do this anymore?" I asked as we drew closer to the hotel. "I mean, first it was Vince, now these guys…"

Hunter frowned. "I didn't think you had a problem with us going after Vince."

"I don't, but still, we're going to start getting a reputation backstage."

"So? It's not like it matters," Jericho said.

"Maybe not to you guys…" I muttered.

"What're you talking about?" Hunter asked.

I sighed. "It's just that… Well, you guys are at the top of the company, or at least pretty damn near there. I'm just a Diva; I don't have the protection that you guys do."

"Hey, none of that," Miz said, giving me a quick, one-armed hug. "You have us around. We'll look out for you."

The four of us laughed as we entered the hotel, though we quickly fell silent as soon as we saw who was waiting for us.

"Vince was one thing, but why the hell did you go after them?" Jeff asked, his voice deadly quiet.

"Because you wouldn't," Jericho said.

Jeff snarled and pushed past us on his way out of the hotel.

"You had better be right about him calming down in a few days," I muttered. "I do not need an angry Jeff on my hands."

XXXXX

"This fucking sucks," I complained a few days later. "Jeff hates us, no one will even look at me, and some of the Divas requested that I be moved to Smackdown."

"Will you just shut up?" Jericho snapped. Miz glared at him, and he sighed. "Sorry, it's just that this hasn't exactly been a walk in the park for any of us, you know."

Now that he mentioned it, the three of them did seem stressed. I had been so wrapped up in my own problems that I forgot that while they may not have had to worry about their jobs their relationships with our coworkers were bound to be suffering too.

Hunter frowned. "Wait a second, who exactly wanted you to change brands?"

I suppressed a grin. Like I said, we look out for each other and judging by the murderous look on Hunter's face he was planning on having a "chat" with some of the Divas…

A knock on the door interrupted out conversation. Miz, who was closest, reached over and pulled it open. To our surprise, Jeff was standing there. "Can we talk?" he asked quietly. The four of us exchanged brief glances and nodded. Jeff hesitantly stepped into the room and pushed the door shut behind him.

"What did you want to talk about?" I asked.

He sighed. "Listen, I appreciate what you guys did, I really do. I… I probably wouldn't have done anything about those guys, not for awhile anyway. But still, I don't want you jeopardize your reputations by continually attacking people for me. Vince was one thing, but these were our coworkers!"

"Jeff, no one in the back trusted us since word of our involvement got out," Hunter said. "They all think we're controlling the business and are afraid of getting on our bad side and losing their jobs. At this point nothing we can do is going to change their minds."

"What about _you_ losing _your_ jobs?"

"We have the same immunity that you do," Jericho said. "The higher ups are afraid that if they fire us we'll go to the press with the story and ruin the company, so they have no choice but to keep us around."

Jeff sighed again and remained silent. It was obvious that he had run out of arguments but wasn't quite willing to demand that we stop sticking up for him so much.

"Neither Mickie nor I were really thrilled to go after those guys in the first place," Miz said. "And I don't think that it's necessary to have anymore attacks, nor should we do this again if the need arises."

Jericho and Hunter looked less than thrilled, but they nodded their agreement.

"Vince was the last person I wanted to take care of," I said. "As far as I'm concerned, we should just try to put this in the past."

Jeff grinned, looking very relieved. "Thanks, guys," he said. "Listen, I need to catch up with Matt. I'll probably see you at the show tomorrow."

After he had left I asked the others, "Do you think our coworkers will ever trust us again?"

Miz shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe this will blow over and things will go back to normal."

"Or maybe they'll keep going after us until we crack and quit," Jericho said bitterly. "And now we have no way to stop them."

The room fell silent and, as I looked around at the others, I couldn't help but wonder what they had been forced to sacrifice because of Vince McMahon.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: Oh, how I wish I owned them…**

**A/N: Sorry for the delay! Here's another attempt at something new. Hopefully it's self-explanatory. Not happy with how it turned out, but there's enough in here that I think is semi-decent that I decided to post it anyway. I was going to end these one-shots on June 24****th****, one year after I started the series, but since it took me so long to finish this, that most likely won't happen. Unless I can write the next chapter **_**really**_** fast.**

_Matt_

For me, the whole ordeal has been a case of near-misses. Nearly having my brother paralyzed, nearly losing him forever, nearly getting fired (on multiple occasions). It was stressful, it was infuriating, but apart from one short stint in the hospital it seemed to leave me mostly unharmed and that doesn't seem fair.

Sure, some of the guys in the back resent my part in everything, but most of them seem to think that I was just dragged along in this. They don't realize how hard I fought for Jeff, how much this affected me as well as him. People like Mickie and Jericho were only involved briefly, and yet they're paying for their mistakes far more than I am.

What do I have to deal with? The effects of the stress of trying to figure everything out, the strain of seeing Jeff's career ruined, the pain of almost being turned against my own brother. All purely emotional things that will fade with time. What about the things that won't fade, the things the others have to deal with?

Why was I passed by when people who played tiny, insignificant parts still have to live with their actions?

_Hunter_

Most people seem to think that because I'm married to the (former) boss's daughter that I don't have to worry about anything.

They're wrong.

Whether Steph favors me or not doesn't matter. I work my ass off to make sure that everyone else knows that I'm not just going to sit around and wait for things to be handed to me. Most of the guys used to respect me for that, even if some of them were afraid of my connection to the higher-ups.

Then, Vince needed someone to attack Hardy. Oh, never mind what I've done in the past. _Clearly_ I'm kissing up to the (former) boss and doing his dirty work for him to get ahead, never mind that my family was threatened. The image I worked to maintain was destroyed in one night.

The worst part was that I couldn't tell anyone why I had done what I did and by the time the truth came out they didn't care about my reasons anymore. Fine. If they didn't care about me, I sure as hell wasn't going to care about them. I turned my back on them and haven't looked back since. My only tie to the person I used to be is my friendship with Shawn. Besides that, everything is changed. New friends, new goals, new priorities.

New image to maintain.

New things to worry about.

_Jericho_

When I first left the business in 2005 it wasn't long before I started to lose contact with the friends I left behind. Okay, so yeah, I did keep in touch with some of my closer friends, but most everyone else… not so much. Sure, we did our best to keep in touch but it just got harder the more time passed. The inside jokes weren't as amusing, the new stories weren't as interesting, and we seemed to have less and less in common.

Eventually we just stopped talking altogether. The emails got fewer and farther between, the phone calls almost non-existent. When I hung around backstage at one of their shows if they were in the area the conversations didn't last long.

I may have been done with wrestling, but that didn't mean that I wasn't interested in it. In their eyes, though, once you leave that's it. End of everything, no going back until you come back to the business. It hurt- after all, I had considered some of them my friends- but I kept busy and tried not to think about it.

Not long after I signed a new contract with the WWE, I started to get emails again. _Hey, Chris, nice to hear you're coming back_ or _Can't wait to wrestle against you again, hope you haven't gone soft since you left_. They couldn't be bothered to try to keep in touch before, but once they heard I was returning they suddenly had to be my friend again.

Bastards.

Things mostly settled down after my return, until the whole fiasco with Vince. I didn't have a choice, but I knew that no one else would see it that way. I had hoped that no one would find out, but they did. Once again, they stopped talking to me and cut me out of their little cliques.

They say that wrestling is a cutthroat business and I know that's true. No one cares about you; they just care about keeping up their perfect images and sticking with the right crowd so they can get to the top. Well, I'm done with that. I have my career and while Hunter and the others are far from my ideal friends, they won't stab me in the back.

Even if everything is forgotten, I'll stick by these five. They're certainly better than the other guys in the locker room.

_Miz_

Honestly, life has never been better.

I mean, look at it this way. My only real close friend was Morrison and he's on a different brand far away from the Raw politics. He doesn't give a rat's ass what goes on over here, so we're still cool. Anyone else I don't mind losing as a friend. On top of that I've _gained_ three friends, five if you count Matt and Jeff.

Let's face it. No offense to the others, but compared to them my life is _awesome_.

What? Were you expecting some pathetic rant about how my life sucks now? Sorry to disappoint you, but it's not going to happen. Of course it's not a complete walk in the park, but I'm happy where I am. New friends, a stable career, and there's a girl who'll actually talk to me without laughing.

Seriously. I _am_ awesome.

_Mickie_

I'm the one who has been complaining the most- you name it, I've bitched about it. The others have told me to shut up, but mostly they've still been supportive. They've reminded me that I don't need friends who'll just stab me in the back, and I will never forget the look on Hunter's face when I told him that some of the other Divas wanted me moved to Smackdown.

Then I started to think about it. What right did I have to complain? Well, not "what right", but why was I complaining when none of the others were? It wasn't like I was the only one whose career was more than slightly fucked up because of this. And yet despite that none of them whined about it like I had. Instead, they'd just been there for me and listened to my ranting, mostly without complaining.

I didn't want to be the person in our little group that was known for only being obnoxious and whiny, so I stopped complaining. And it wasn't until almost a week later that I realized that I was actually, truly _happy_. The constant complaining hadn't been making me miserable, but it had only served to remind me of what I had lost. Now, I could focus on what I had gained.

Not surprisingly, I found that I liked the present a lot better than the past.

_Jeff_

I lost my career. What else is there to say? Matt and the others, sure, they're shunned by most of the locker room but at least they can still wrestle. What do I have to look forward to during the shows? A promo, maybe, or just going down to the ring with my brother. Fan-fucking-tastic.

Yeah, I could leave if I wanted to, but I guess part of me is still clinging to the hope of maybe being able to wrestle one last time, to have just one more match. Maybe if I stick around they'll realize that they can use me- just me, not with Matt- in some short term program. Just a week or two or three where I can do my own thing, leading up to one carefully orchestrated match at a pay-per-view.

It's not going to happen, but I can hope, can't I? Is it so horrible for me to want to fight against this path I've been forced down? I didn't _choose_ to stop wrestling; I had no other choice. Even on my best days I wake up in pain, and at my worst I can't even get out of bed for an hour.

So much for Jeff Hardy, the daredevil and high-flyer.

More like Jeff Hardy, the cripple and invalid.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: Own nothing. But you already knew that, right?**

**A/N: So here we are, at the end of the journey. Unless I get a brilliant idea for another oneshot, this will be it. I might mess around with the Hunter-Jericho-Miz-Mickie group, though, just because they're a lot of fun to write. Thank you to everyone who's taken the time to review!**

"Sorry. Didn't see you."

"Oh, it's fine. Don't worry about it."

Jeff stopped, already frowning in confusion, took one of his headphones out of his ear and asked, "What did you say?"

"I said it's fine. No harm done, right?"

For most people, it was a normal situation. Two people walking in opposite directions down a hall. One bumps into the other and apologizes. That part was always normal for Jeff. The "Oh, it's fine" comment was normally fine, but not for Jeff. Two months ago, sure, no problem. Not anymore.

"Watch where you're going" or "Get the fuck out of my way" was a normal reaction now. Hell, being ignored was the best he could hope for these days. He couldn't remember the last time someone had had to talk to him and didn't slip in some snide remark while doing so.

"Is something wrong?"

"You're still here?" This was definitely strange. Jeff studied the man in front of him, trying to figure out who he was exactly. "You're from ECW, aren't you?"

"Yeah. Or, I was anyway. Just got moved over to Raw. I'm Evan Bourne." He held out his hand for a shake, but Jeff only looked at him quizzically.

"Do you know who I am?"

"Yeah. Jeff Hardy."

Jeff sighed. "Listen, here's a word of advice. If you want to do well over here, stay away from me, okay?" He turned away and continued walking down the hallway, but before he could put his headphones back on he heard footsteps behind him. He turned back around, only to see Evan following him. "Weren't you heading in the opposite direction before?"

"I changed my mind," Evan said, though his voice was a little _too_ innocent.

"You're following me, aren't you?"

"Is it that obvious?"

Jeff narrowed his eyes. So Evan _was_ following him. "Who put you up to it?" he snarled.

Evan's eyes widened slightly and he took a step back. He hadn't exactly expected a welcoming reaction, but neither had he expected _this_. "No one," he said. "I just… I was hoping we could talk."

Talk? No one had wanted to just talk to him since the whole mess began, not counting those that had been involved in the Vince Fiasco. "Did one of my friends put you up to this? Or my brother?" He wouldn't put it past them.

"No, no one put me up to this. I swear I just wanted to talk to you."

Jeff studied him for a moment, but didn't seem to be lying. "Fine. Come with me to catering. I'm starved and it should be empty by now; we can talk there."

Neither of them spoke as they walked down the hallway towards catering. Jeff walked in first but stopped just inside the doorway, causing Evan to almost run into him. "Damnit, I thought it would be empty…" Jeff muttered. "Listen, you should probably go. Don't follow me."

Evan hesitated and watched as Jeff crossed the room to grab something to drink before sitting down at an empty table in the far corner. He knew that the other wrestlers in the room were watching him to see what he would do, but he followed Jeff across the room and sat across from him.

"You shouldn't have done that," Jeff said.

"And why not?"

"Why not?" Jeff laughed bitterly. "Look around. No one's going to talk to you anymore. Not your friend will come over to say anything. They all hate me."

Evan turned around and surveyed the room. Sure enough, though people were watching them carefully none looked like they were going to come over to say hello, not even Evan's friend, CM Punk. "I see things a bit differently," he said as he continued to look around at the others. "I don't think they hate you; they're just afraid of the people who are."

Jeff snorted. "Believe whatever you want. Doesn't make a difference to me." He took a drink of his water and asked, "So what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Why are you still here? I mean, you're obviously miserable, you're the social outcast of Raw, and you're not playing a major part in any storyline, really. I'm not suggesting that you leave, but I don't understand why you've put up with everything for so long."

"You know _nothing_," Jeff snarled. "Don't you _dare_ sit there and question what I've done. I'm doing the best I can, considering the circumstances!"

"Sorry. It's just… I'm having a hard time understanding why you're doing this. If I was in your place it would be too painful to be around the business. I already know what's going on but I don't know _why_, and it's driving me crazy."

Jeff almost felt sorry for Evan. He truly looked like he just wanted to know what was going on so he could figure out his place on Raw but answering his question would require digging up too many things he had wanted to leave alone. "Look, I get why you're asking me. You're curious and you haven't heard the story from the other guys enough to keep you away from me, but I don't know if I can even think of an answer to your question."

Evan nodded. "Just think about it, then. Maybe you'll figure something out eventually." He stood up and stretched. "See you around, then." He walked across the room and, to the surprise of everyone, sat down across from CM Punk.

_If he keeps pushing boundaries like that he'll either do very well or get buried very quickly_, Jeff thought as he watched the two started up a conversation.

XXXXX

"Matt, what's the point of me staying in the WWE anymore?" Jeff asked after the show that night.

"You thinking of retiring?" Matt asked as he glanced over at his brother.

"You don't sound surprise."

"You never struck me as one who would be content to only watch from the sidelines, not to mention that you have plenty other projects that could occupy your time." Matt shrugged. "To be honest, I'm surprised you stuck around this long when there's really not anything for you here and it was Vince himself who screwed you over."

"Do you think I should retire then?"

Matt hesitated before answering. "I think you need to decide that for yourself," he said carefully. "I don't think there's anything here for you, but I like having you around to mess around with. You need to weigh the pros and cons and decide what's best for you."

Jeff sighed. "I just don't know if I'm hanging around for the wrong reasons or not," he admitted.

"Like waiting for that 'one last match'?" At Jeff's surprised look, he chuckled and said, "It was pretty obvious that you were hoping to be able to wrestle again. Look at it this way though. If you're ever back at one hundred percent you can come back, and if the WWE wants you for a storyline they'll contact you. The real question is, is it worth sticking around until then?"

XXXXX

"Hey, Jeff," Punk said as he walked by.

Jeff shook his head. "Still can't get used to that," he murmured. It had been a couple of weeks since he had talked to Evan but he had seen the younger man's work all over Raw. A few people were starting to talk to him again, and those that weren't at least didn't openly hate him. "One guy comes here and refuses to be put into a box and suddenly everyone starts acting differently."

"Makes life better for you, though," Matt said.

Jeff nodded. "Too bad I won't be around to enjoy it."

"I take it you decided to leave, then."

"You and Evan were right. I had nothing going for me here." Jeff watched his coworkers walk by. Most of them ignored him, but he found he didn't care. He wasn't going to have to deal with them anymore and once he had something new to focus on he could finally move past what had happened. "It's definitely time for me to move on."

**A/N: Okay, bit of an explanation. I wrote the part with Evan Bourne 'cause I figured that it needed to be a newcomer and he always struck me as the type that would ask Jeff what was going on and whatnot. Sorry if he seems a bit OOC, but that's just my characterization of him. =]**


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